Who's in Control?
by NG87
Summary: It's unending. Every time they save the Underground, every time, it ends without warning and they have to start over. Frisk and Chara can't give up, especially when an outside force begins to manipulate things. A player story with a Charisk pairing.


They stood on the ledge of the mountain together, Frisk and her friends. She took a deep breath, tuning out the exterior world and looking into herself. When she opened her eyes, she was not on the mountain anymore. She was standing a few feet away from what could have been her reflection in another life. Their differences only highlighted how similar they were, as really they even wore nearly the same clothes just in other colors. Frisk with her blue shorts and blue and purple striped sweater, and Chara with her green and yellow striped sweater and reddish brown shorts.

Chara gave her a wan smile. "I'm always amazed by how much kindness you have Frisk. I can't even remember how long we've been doing this, but every time you try to make sure that everyone will be happy." Her smile faltered as she added, "Just in case we don't wake up back in the ruins."

Frisk could feel the same tired smile she had outside on her face here too. "I won't risk leaving anyone behind, not if there's a chance that they will get to continue even if we don't get to stay with them. I can't give up on them."

"The love you feel for your friends fills you with DETERMINATION." Chara managed to keep her voice in her 'narrator' tone, but she broke into laughter as Frisk took this as a cue to twirl on the spot before planting her right foot forward and giving Chara a thumbs up with a wink and a huge smile.

They both were glad for the break. It had been too long. They had had their happy ending pulled out from under them more times than they cared to consider. Chara's habit of laughing through her pain had quietly become Their coping mechanism for dealing with the resets.

Chara, Asriel, and Sans had managed to cobble together enough information for Frisk get a fair idea of how they worked. It was hard to believe that she had the ability to create SAVES and reset time to those points in time. Harder still that when she died she found herself in a black room with two buttons in front of her: Continue and Reset.

And she had died. Many, many times. All of her friends had hurt her, yet only Undyne, Asgore, and Asriel had accomplished that. It hadn't happened in what was likely months or maybe years? Time ceased to have meaning to her long ago. The only reason she hadn't gone crazy was-

"Awww, I knew that you were in love with me, Frisk my darling!"

-was still able to read her mind.

Frisk watched her friend feigning a swoon with a completely blank face for a few moments before lunging at Chara. When she reached out to the surprised red eyed girl she took hold of the other girl's hand while kneeling, "Whatever would I do without you, the world would have no meaning!" Frisk exclaimed in a voice that would have made Metaton applaud.

Chara sputtered and blushed, "You flirt!" She didn't pull away from the contact though.

Frisk simply gave her a smile before standing back up and pulling Chara into a hug. The two had no idea how old their minds were, but the two 12 year olds had been together for almost as long as they could remember by now. Even so, their friendship had only become more open to affection recently.

Chara was only able to manifest a physical body when Frisk entered the black room, or what she called the 'Pause' room (since it seemed that time stopped in the rest of the world). Even that had taken time though. Chara had started out a whisper that Frisk could hear in her mind that would help her through the Underground. The first time that Chara had said something to her was when they were on their way to see Asgore.

 _...Please be careful with Asgore, he's very strong. You can choose not to fight. You... you can stay here._

That first time, Frisk hadn't planned to fight Asgore. She planned to see him and _specifically_ not fight. Chara had sensed that though. She'd broken her role as a guide to try and dissuade Frisk from her choice. It was at that point that Frisk had stopped walking. She had taken a deep breath and said in a quiet whisper, "I'm not going to fight with him."

She still remembered that small sense of relief she had felt. Now she knew that it had been Chara's relief that her friend wasn't going to fight her father. That relief had turned quickly to disbelief when Frisk had continued, "I'm going to free the monsters." She hadn't known then that Chara could see her, but she had a feeling that the guide knew that she was tearing up. "I.. I made my choice from the time I heard that I could help. If he needs my soul to break the barrier, and bring happiness to all these wonderful people I've met since coming here, I can't deny that."

 _What are you saying?_

"I'm saying that I came here on accident, but I came to the mountain for a reason. At least this way, I can make a difference."

Even the memory of that first conversation made Frisk happy. It had been the first time someone had been concerned about her. Chara had been truly scared that she'd die. After all the near misses with Undyne Frisk supposed it made sense. She'd been pretty badly hurt trying to get away from the spear wielding guard captain. Sans had been at his guard post near the entrance to Hotland, and he had been surprised when a bruised and battered child got water and splashed it on the monster trying to kill her. When she collapsed after Undyne left, he had been the one to pick her up and take care of her injuries. She'd only had 1 hp left from the attacks she couldn't quite dodge. Going up against a foe who was even stronger than that must've terrified Chara.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be able to help so many this way."

When Chara had been silent she'd taken that as assent. She remembered sniffing and smiling despite her tears and telling her, "Thank you, for helping me. I understand if you don't want to come with me for this."

 _I won't let you go alone. I-I'll stay with you until..until the end._

Sometimes they wonder what would have happened if that plan had worked, and sometimes she thought maybe it had and this was just a different world where she'd have a chance to survive and succeed with her friends and Chara. But it's been nothing but a form of slow torture; every time, a few days of happiness. A few days to enjoy the time of having a family. They weren't sure how it happened, but it did. One night, they'd go to sleep in their new house with Toriel and then Frisk would wake up in the ruins with Chara just as confused as she was.

"Hey." Frisk must've been thinking too much, since Chara was giving her a sad smile. "You know that no matter what happens, we're going to face it together, right? You aren't alone Frisk."

Frisk gave her hand a squeeze before answering, "I'm so glad that I've had you with me. I'm so happy that you can be here with me, you know," she gave another squeeze.

"Me too," Chara gently let go of her closest friend, "You should get back to the others. I'm sure Papyrus and Toriel are going to want to talk to you about living arrangements. We might as well try to make the most of this, since you're right about this maybe being the last time!"

As Frisk faded from the Pause room Chara heard a very tired, "I hope so..."


End file.
